THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
o plow them for spring crops. Cloddy ground and a 
deal of hard work at planting, to say nothing of short 
Crops from excessive tramping while wet, are usually 
the price one pays for this privilege. When meadows 
are intended for another hay crop, disappointment at 
the time of harvest is almost sure to be the result. 
On my farm, not only all the work land is in one in- 
dosure, but the lawn around the dwelling, and the 
garden are also a part of it. I have no door-yard or 
garden fenced off, and like the plan very much. The 
poultry have an inclosure adjoining the poultry house, 
I fence the stock in and let the crops take their chances 
of getting mixed when planted in the same field. 
Jefferson County, O. B. c. luptox. 
CAN THE MANUFACTURERS SELL DIRECT 
TO THE FARMER? 
I think not. I have sold some machinery while 
farming. The discount to dealers is about 25 per cent. 
This seems very large. 1 first tried asking^ much 
less profit. Farmers would buy the tool, promising to 
pay cash. Then on one pretext or another, months 
would elapse before payment was made. Occasionally, 
one must take a note. I have some now that are 
worth little more than waste paper. Men’s circum¬ 
stances change so that even when you are pretty sure 
the customer is good, you will be deceived. The good 
customers must pay the hills of the defaulting ones— 
that is all. Or else the agent must “ go broke.” Look 
over the list of agents whom you know ; how many of 
them do you see getting rich, or even making money ? 
If a manufacturer will sell directly to the farmer, 
he can get no agent to take hold of his goods in that 
territory. Very few farmers will order direct from 
the manufacturers. Farmers generally want to see 
the thing they buy. They want it when they need it. 
Very often the purchase of a plow, harrow or mower, 
is delayed till the morning of the day it is to he used. 
At least that is the way here. Some one must carry 
the goods in stock, and repairs as well. The agent 
makes it a point to work up trade for his special house 
all the time. Thus, natiirally, the manufacturer would 
rather lose one sale direct to the farmer than to an¬ 
tagonize a possible agent. When he has already an 
agent, he is generally under contract to sell to no 
other party, and the agent likewise agrees to sell no 
other similar goods. 
Now there is a way that I have thought out that I 
believe will work well and .save the middleman’s profit 
to the farmer, but leave the deadheads out in the cold. 
Let, say, 50 farmers organize a farmers’ cooperative 
implement company. Let them subscribe, say, $5 
each to begin with. Then hire a small warehouse, 
and some smart young man (or old one for that matter) 
to take charge from March 1, for six months, say. 
Some ex-implement agent would be useful. Now let 
each member think up beforehand, as far as possible, 
what his needs will be in the coming season. The 
clerk will order, receive, set up the machinery, charge, 
say, five per cent profit, collect the bill and remit to 
the manufactui-er. The five per cent profit goes to 
keeping up expense, and prevents large purchasers 
getting more benefit from the organization than their 
share. A small general stock of shovels, forks, mower 
sections and rivets, nails, and fence wire may well be 
kept on hand at all times. A rule of cash in advance 
of order may be made to prevent any one getting in 
debt to the concern. 
In this country, the annual outlay of the average 
farmer for machinery, including wagons and buggies, 
is not less than ^100 per year, lie might .save from 10 to 
20 per cent of this by cooperative buying. To be sure, 
we do not always have cash to pay, yet the banks are 
eager to loan it at eight per cent, and three months is 
the limit of time allowed by agents on machinery in 
most cases. By paying cash within 10 days, from two 
to five per cent may be saved from net prices, which 
should always be taken advantage of. The more men 
taking stock the better, as it would lessen propor¬ 
tional expense so much. If many are interested, cash 
in advance should be the rule. j. e. wing. 
Woodside Farm, Ohio. 
THE SAN JOSE SCALE. 
Last week. Prof. J. A. Lintner pointed out to readers 
of Tjie R. N.-Y. some of the dangers of an invasion of 
the above named insect. This week, we give two pie- 
figures (Figs. 212 and 213) taken from Insect Life, show¬ 
ing the work of this pest on fruit and tree. If this 
insect is permitted to establish itself here as it did in 
California, it will cost Eastern fruit men millions of 
dollars to fight it—let alone stamp it out. Now is the 
time to do it, and it seems to us that nurserymen stand 
in their own light when they fail to help in this work. 
The following description of trees infested with this 
insect is taken from Insect Life : 
“ During the summer, it is noticeable that the scale 
has a tendency to infest only the extremities of the 
trees, or the new growth, especially of the lower 
branches and the fruit. The leaves are attacked 
along the midrib on the upper side of the leaf in one, 
two, or more quite regular rows ; also to some extent 
along the side ribs, the male scales predominating 
over the female in such situations. The infested leaves 
turn purplish-brown, but do not have a tendency to 
fall. When occurring upon the fruit, the scales have 
a distinctive peculiarity, in that they are invariably 
surrounded by a purplish discoloration of the skin of 
the fruit, and this discoloration is also noticed to some 
extent on the young growing twigs. The cambium 
layer of wood beneath the scales, is stained pur¬ 
plish to some extent. In winter, the scales upon 
AN APPLE TREE INFESTED WITH SAN JOSE SCALE. Fio. 213. 
twigs are difficult to distinguish. They lie close to 
each other, frequently overlapping, and can only be 
differentiated with a magnifying glass. The general 
apjiearance which they present, is of a grayish, very 
slightly roughened, scurfy deposit. The natural rich 
reddish color of the limbs of peach and apple, is quite 
obscured when these trees are thickly infested, and 
they have then every appearance of being coated with 
lime or ashes. When the scales are crushed by scrap - 
ing, a yellowish, oily liquid will appear, resulting 
from the crushing of the soft, yellow insects beneath 
the scales.” 
BUSINESS ON THE FARM. 
OUB BOOKKEEPING AND IIOW WE IK) IT. 
1 have discarded every crop or branch on my farm 
since 1888, that did not pay me a profit over the actual 
cost of production. 1 entered on this year’s work in a 
more thoroughly systematic manner than upon that of 
A PEAR MODERATELY INFESTED WITH THE SAN JOSE 
SCALE. AN ENLARGED FEMALE INSECT SHOWN AT 
TOP. Fig. 213. 
any previous year, and have met with a greater degree 
of success. I am now able to tell the exact cost of 
every crop grown on my farm. It cost something to 
do this, but I consider it necessary to a complete suc¬ 
cess. I have been working my farm the past three 
years on the 10-hour system, and charge every crop 
with the time of each person employed, at the rate of 
wages paid, together with 30 cents per day for board¬ 
ing, as the hands are boarded on the farm. I charge 
the crop such a price for myself as a superintendent of 
such work would demand, and for each horse, five 
cents per hour. 
All fruit and vegetables consumed on the farm are 
taken without credit to the crop. Notwithstanding 
this, I have not grown a crop this season, except sweet 
corn, but has paid a good to a handsome profit clear 
of labor, use of grounds, fertilizers, seed, etc. This 
has not been done on the old line of farming with 
sheep, cattle, horses and hogs, with manure to grow 
791 
corn, oats and hay to feed them, which I followed 
from 1885 to 1888. Believing that there is room at the 
top in every profession, I resolved to do more mental 
and less physical work. The result is that during the 
past six years my system of farming has been changed 
“ even to nails and politics,” as one of my employees 
says. ; 
Some of the crops grown the past season were 
wheat, potatoes, celery, tomatoes, peas, snap beans, 
squashes, onions, beets, parsnips, etc. Nearly all were 
sold to the con.sumers, and grown on commercial fer¬ 
tilizers alone. Each crop so far as disposed of, has 
paid a profit of from 10 to 125 per cent above the cost 
of production and marketing. This success has all 
been brought about by careful thought, and doing the 
right thing at the right time, with a carefully kept 
account with each crop. I am thus able to tell the 
exact cost of each crop in the rotation, of the work 
required to produce and market it. This is done by 
means of a weekly account book of my own design, 
allowing one page for each day. Six pages constitute 
the book for the week. It is covered with a stiff 
paper cover with the following inscription : 
No. 
FRE HATTON. 
Farm, Fruit and Vegetable Expeusc, 
For week ending., 1894. 
T’hese books are numbered in regular order as used, 
beginning with the first and ending with the last 
week of tlie year, recording every hour’s or half hour’s 
work done on the farm by employees, team or myself. 
Each page, when open, is 3%xl2>^ inches, and the fol¬ 
lowing inscription is on each page : 
EXPENSE ACCOUNT. 
Hated...day,.1804. 
Commenced Work, A.M. Commenced Work, p.M. 
Quit Work, A.M. Quit Work, 
CroiJS, etc. 
A 
Name of Workman. 
A 
R 
Cts. 
' 
1 
I liereby certify that the above is correct. 
r oreinjiii. 
The foreman to fiii out the biank spaces at the head of this pajre 
with the day and month, and the time he begins work in the morn¬ 
ing, time he auits for noon, time beginning afternoon, and time of 
quitting at night. U.se the foilowing abbreviations in keeping the 
expense of crops, etc., in the ieft hand coiumn (A): P, Plow^ing- 
H, Harrowing; D, Dragging; R, Roliing; F, Putting in commerciai 
Fertilizer; S, Planting; C, Cultivating; W, Weeding; G, Harvest¬ 
ing; M, marketing ; E, all preparation for a crop not otherwise 
mentioned; I, Improvement of the Farm. 
The right hand column (A) is to record the No. of hours charged 
to each crop, etc. All other expenses, together with suggestions 
in the blank space below. fKA-Qn Saturday evening of each week 
deliver this account to the proprietor. 
The page is ruled two-thirds of the way down, cor¬ 
responding with the headlines, then come the fore¬ 
man’s name and direction, leaving about three inches 
of the page below. fi{e patton. 
Harrison County, O. 
R. N.-Y.—Mr. Patton has sent us a sample of his 
account book. It is well arranged to record just such 
accounts as he speaks of. We now hope he will give 
us the figures to show what some of his crops really 
cost. 
OLD, AND NEW PROCESS OIL MEALS. 
WHY AND HOW THEY DIFFER. 
So many wrong statements about old and new 
process linseed oil meal are made, that I desire to tell 
the truth about it. In my lifetime, I have been in a 
good many oil mills, both old, and new process. In 
the old process, the ground seed is heated, but not in 
contact with steam ; neither is it made hot enough to 
amount to cooking, but is simply warmed to a degree 
sufficient to cause the oil to be more limpid and press 
out more closely. In the new process, the ground 
seed is put into large retorts, connected in batteries 
of six or more, and through these the solvent (naphtha) 
is forced from the bottom of one into the top of the 
next until practically all the oil is dissolved and carried 
out. In order to have the solvent fully saturated 
when it leaves the battery, a retort is added filled 
with fresh meal as often as an exhausted one is cut 
off. When a retort is cut off, a jet of superheated 
steam at a high pressure is forced through it, until all 
trace of the solvent is driven out. When this is com¬ 
pleted the now thoroughly steam-cooked meal, is 
slowly passed through driers consisting of tall tubs 
filled with shelves through which a current of heated 
dry air is continuously forced upward while the meal 
is dropped into the top and slowly passes downward 
from shelf to shelf. It comes out perfectly free from 
moisture and all taint of the solvent. It is no more 
necessary in the one to have i)ure seed than in the 
other, and in both the better the seed used, the more 
valuable will the meal be for feeding. 
By the old process, in extracting the oil by severe 
pressure, much of the albuminoids is pressed out with 
the oil. This constitutes what is called boots, by 
